BOSTON -- Amid testimony Friday about elected officials backing applicants for a 2005 Bristol Superior Court post, Judge William Young advised the jury to “keep your eye on the ball” during what’s expected to be a lengthy trial of three former state probation department officials.

Young reminded the jurors that political patronage is not a crime and said the prosecutors are trying to prove the officials falsely certified that hiring policies had been followed.

Ellen Slaney, a former probation department official, testified Friday she was told in advance the name of a job candidate who she was told to advance through a supposedly merit-based interview for “political” reasons. Defense attorneys also quizzed Slaney on her role in her niece receiving a probation job.

Federal prosecutors are attempting to prove that former Probation Commissioner John O’Brien and two former deputies, Elizabeth Tavares and William Burke III, secretly manipulated the hiring apparatus to install politically connected candidates regardless of whether they were the best choice for the job.

Slaney, the prosecution’s first witness, said she believed her niece had been passed over for probation officer positions because Slaney had resisted cooperating in the patronage system. She said she did not attempt to secure any special treatment for her niece, Moira Toomey.

“I was only asking that she be treated like everyone else,” said Slaney, who said she wrote a thank you to O’Brien after she was hired.

Slaney said she participated in some interviews over about a decade in which she was asked to advance a particular name, though in select cases she had her own preferred candidate or believed the selected candidate was unqualified.

In 2000 she passed over favored applicant Doug MacLean - who is the son of a former Fairhaven state senator - because he had a felony on his record and a history of substance abuse, according to Slaney.

Slaney said O’Brien admonished her for not advancing MacLean, who got the job, and said she begged off participation in future interviews. However, after a hiring freeze ended in 2005 she was asked to participate in interviews to fill the position of first assistant chief probation officer at Bristol Superior Court.

Slaney said she and the chief probation officer at the court believed they knew who would be best for the job ahead of the interviews, but Tavares told her to move forward Joseph Dooley, who was eventually hired.

“She told me, ‘Sometimes the political thing had to be done,’” Slaney said on the stand, quoting Tavares who was seated at a defense table in front of her.

Page 2 of 2 - “You didn’t really know what she meant when she said that?” asked Bailey, which Slaney conceded. He said, “Have you ever heard of the phrase workplace politics?”

“Not really,” Slaney replied.

An independent counsel report into patronage in the probation department reported that Dooley had the backing of Sen. Marc Pacheco, a Taunton Democrat.

Slaney described herself as a reluctant participant in the process of advancing O’Brien’s selected candidates. Though she passed along names of the preferred candidate to the chief probation officer who would be on the three-person interview panel, she would not tell the judge who was also on the panel.

“I thought it was inappropriate,” Slaney said.

“What was inappropriate?” asked federal prosecutor Karin Bell.

“Giving names of people that were going to be chosen before the interview even occurred,” Slaney said.

Prosecutors say O’Brien backed candidates to gain “political currency” from their sponsors, some of the most powerful people in state government, while defense attorneys contend he merely sought the advice of respected government officials.

Bell’s questioning of Slaney occurred amid a thicket of objections from lawyers for the three defendants. Young indicated that additional subjects could be returned to, and Slaney could be called back to the stand.

Defense attorney Stellio Sinnis produced applications that showed five of the seven other candidates for the Bristol court position had the backing of various elected officials, including Sen. Mark Montigny (D-New Bedford), former Rep. James Fagan (D-Taunton) and former Rep. John Quinn (D-Dartmouth).

Sinnis also elicited from Slaney that she had her own preferred candidates heading into interviews, which she said was based on working with the candidates as their direct supervisor.

After O’Brien’s ouster in May 2010, Ronald Corbett stepped in as acting commissioner, and when Corbett left in early 2013 Slaney briefly filled the role of acting commissioner.

In 2005 when she was a regional supervisor and once again stopped participating in hiring, she was assigned to conduct overdue audits in other counties, which she interpreted as “retaliation” for bucking the pressure to help political hires.

Slaney suspected her relationship with O’Brien had been a blockade to her niece’s employment by the public safety agency. Before the trial wrapped for the weekend, Sinnis presented Slaney with interview scores from judges on panels that ranked her niece below the top-eight that would proceed to the final interview round.